David R. Hancox, CIA, CGFM

I've worked for 41 years in the audit field with expertise in performance, compliance and financial auditing, and best practices in performing these audits. Over the course of my 37-year career in the New York Comptroller's Office, I served as both the Director of State Expenditures and Director of State Audits. As Director of State Expenditures, I led a 115-person team responsible for auditing more than $70 billion in transactions annually. There were over 100,000 transactions per day.

I transformed this unit from a labor-intensive, clerical audit operation to a modern, risk-based professional audit unit, using the latest audit techniques, including advanced data analysis and data mining techniques, to find fraud, waste, and improper transactions.

My team and I also revamped the State Comptroller's audit process over the State's $50 billion in Medicaid expenditures by bringing in advanced audit tools that increased our cost recovery efforts.
Several of the largest law firms in the world have also retained me as an expert witness. In one case, I testified in a multi-defendant arbitration before three former federal judges that resulted in a $1.5 billion award for the companies on whose behalf I was retained. My work was based on the management practices and internal control systems implemented by the defendants.

The NYS Comptroller's Office issued an interesting audit report (2014-S-4) about dead people. The auditors found, "NYSOH [New York State of Health program] enrolled deceased individuals and continued Medicaid coverage for individuals who had died … [Read more]

The International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators (IFIAR) was established in September 2006 by independent audit regulators from 17 countries, including the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) from the United States.IFIAR has … [Read more]

Recently, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, that oversees the audits of public companies, sanctioned five auditors for:Violating auditor independence requirements. Providing bookkeeping and auditing services to the same … [Read more]